Reversible pleated skirts have been manufactured and marketed commercially for many years, and an early precursor is described in Canadian Patent 474,685 issued Feb. 19, 1985 for example.
In a pleated garment, material forming a pleat is normally folded beneath the outer face of the garment to form at least three layers. Where the gather of the material is increased to in excess of 3:1, one pleat will overlap an adjacent pleat, to form five layers of material in the overlapping portion.
Where the garment is a skirt, the pleats are normally constrained from opening in the upper portions of the skirt, which is to say those portions which are adapted to fit about the torso of the wearer, and which may be generally referred to as the waist portion of the skirt, by their being sewn shut. Where the skirt is not reversible, the stitch lines sewing the pleats shut are not of concern on the interior face of the garment, as they will not normally be exposed to view when the skirt is being worn.
Where the skirt is reversible, however, this type of sew through stitching would detract from the appearance of the garment. In this instance, the stitching is confined to the overlapping fold areas, i.e. those areas wherein there are five layers of material, with only four of the five layers being stitched together, the fifth layer which forms the opposed face of the garment acting to hide the stitching.
Where the garment is a kilt, the general construction comprises a pleated panel which connects at both lateral sides to an unpleated apron, hereinafter referred to simply as an apron. The pleat adjacent to and overlaying the apron will normally comprise only three layers, taken together with the apron. In this instance it is not possible to sew down the pleat while at the same time hiding the stitching on the opposed face of the kilt, and this last pleat has therefore been left open in previously constructed reversible kilts. This detracts somewhat from the appearance of the kilt. A similar problem arises in respect of each of the pleats where the gather is not in excess of 3:1, as the pleats will not overlap whereby a pleat on a one face can serve to hide the stitching of a pleat on the other face.